Japas 38

I would not come back here since other Japas are way better than this one.
There aren’t enough tables to sit down for dinner so we ended up in a karaōke room. The food was good but in small portion. Drinks and karaōke are expensive compares to other places. In addition, cleanliness is subpar… I would definitely recommend other places for you money

I know I won’t be back to Japas. I’ve been to four different Karaōke places now, and Japas is the worst of the four. We reserved a room for last night, which was handled well. I had some trouble getting in contact to confirm my reservation, but the process is simple and easy. We arrived early and were brought to our room early, too, which was nice. We didn’t start the Karaōke until fifteen minutes later than our reservation, but they took that into account at the end of the night. I had made a reservation for 10, and three of our people unfortunately didn’t show. We were still charged $ 10 each for them, which was pretty annoying.
The first thing I saw after we entered our room was the two large sushi platters left for us. The second thing I saw was a roach. Not a great start. The controller, while in Japanese, was easy enough to use, though they do not use technology to their advantage, and the entire song selection comes from books and not from the controller itself. A few times before we started our own karaōke, we heard random noises from the other rooms come through our speakers. Odd.
The song selection is not very good, with the most recent songs being from a couple of years ago. An oddly wide variety of songs by System of a Down, but only two songs each from Will Smith and Ludacris, and no Ignition Remix! Heresy.
We paid for an extra hour, but when we got the check things got expensive. The $ 35 package for 7, plus the $ 10 no-​show fee (dumb) plus the $ 15/​person extra hour (very steep) plus tax and included tip and it wound up costing us ~$ 69/​person. Crazy.
Other places come with more for much less. Or better yet, come with less for MUCH less, with add-​ons available. The sushi plate had just cucumber rolls, almost-​california-​rolls, and some unidentifiable tuna-​maybe roll that was gross. The plate of hot food was much better, with chicken teriyaki, veggie– and beef-​pot-​stickers, edamame, and (delicious) rice balls. Not worth the expense though.
Thankfully I was with my family, and we have a good time no matter where we are, but I’d rather go to any other karaōke place than Japas 38.
Did I mention we encountered THREE cockroaches in our room???

The have pretty good price for drinks n food as in midtown.
They have full food menu, can even enjoy your dinner while others’ singing. Well, if they really can sing… lol Or order a song and sing yourself if you are in the mood.
They also have few private rooms, good for group people to keep your private party, really good price n deal.

I went to Japas 38 last Saturday for my friends bday and We all got exactly what We paid for a reserved regular room, with unlimited house rum vodka and beer unlimited food. All for 45 dollars for 2 hours! They have a cheaper option with only house sake and beer for 35 but ours included the hard stuff. me my wife and friends had a great time singing our hearts out and picking songs from the very user friendly remote control they give ya to select songs. Staff is very accommodating very attentive and very discreet when its time to pay the bill. excellent service all around.. Im a big fan of karaōke and I cant wait to go again. I will certainly recommend this place to more friends..

My boyfriend and I came here for lunch. We aren’t into karaōke but he and I were hungry, so we stopped by for the food.
Let me warn everyone who wants to go, THE FISH IS WARM! I was scared to eat it because I know warm fish will make you sick, any raw food kept over 40 degrees can be an infestation for different bacteria… anyway
When I asked our waiter about it, he told us that it was just the rice which was warm, which is not true. I disected my spicy salmon roll from which the salmon was slimy and extremely warm… I really hope no one gets sick, I hope I don’t.
Go at your own expense! Be careful!!!
Ps: A DRINK COST $ 16 WHERE IN ANY OTHER RESTAURANT IN NEW YORK IT WOULD BE CHEAPER! For a kalua and baileys mixed drink they charged me $ 8 for kalua and $ 8 for baileys!!! What the hell?! NEVER EVER EVER
COMING BACK HERE!!! this place will make you sick and rip you off!!!

Good solid Japanese food in midtown. I had a good miso ramen, and my friend had a bento box of sashimi which she really liked. I don’t love the décor, but I definitely got over it. It was very quiet at lunch time, which worked well for us. Servers were very polite and fast.

If you’re in the mood for Karaōke in the public bar area and have lots of friends and you happen to be uptown, give this place a try. Though they have private Karaōke rooms, for a person like myself who prefers singing in the public bar area, it is more than adequate with an excellent sound system similar to BINY, very comfortable table seating and no minimums drinks to sing, just $ 2 per song in which they give you a card for song number (yes the prehistoric but tried and true book numbering system) and name of song and the wonderful bar tender/​waitress (shorter Japanese lady) will happily input your song.
In terms of drinks, if the waitress and you have a good repertoire, she will be generous on the alcohol portion, but if not, then you may feel that it’s watered down so beer is a safe choice. But if it’s not happy hour you are paying a high premium for drinks.
Please read other Unilocal reviews about the room and food specials which seem awesome!

There was a cockroach in the water, yikes! Not coming back! And what’s worse, we caught the waiter trying to scoop it out. Also for kareoke they gave only two mics for a room of 10 people.

I stopped by to grab a drink and sing a song or two. The place was filled with mostly people who just got out of work. I missed out on the ½ priced drink specials: daily 4pm-​7pm. There are private rooms in the back ($ 10/​hr per person) but it was more entertaining to be by the bar.
Karaōke at the bar required one drink minimum per person and $ 2 a song. You might have to wait a while for your song to pop up. Most of the time it was worth it since people sang along. You can also feel free to dance or sway or maybe fist pump here and there. Many songs were current with the mainstream.
The lychee martinis were candy-​like and had a kick. The bartender that evening knew how to hit the spot. There was a dinner menu available but I skipped it. The staff was attentive and encouraging to help refill the booze.

This breaks my heart because I have many good memories at this place, but I simply CANNOT ever give these people a dime of my money ever again.
I’ve been coming here regularly for years with big groups dropping hundreds of dollars a night easily on private karaōke rooms, buckets of beer (literally) and have always had a great time despite average food and rare surprise charges or miscommunications regarding pricing of certain items. So naturally when I called to make a reservation for our group for my girlfriends birthday party, I expected another good experience. Boy was I wrong.
When I made my reservation for a party of 8 in a private room, they took my credit card information. Now I asked why they needed my credit card information for the reservation. I also told them at this moment that there was a strong chance we may have to cancel the reservation due to a few members of our group having family health emergencies that were tenuous. Japas 38 told me «That’s completely fine. If you have to cancel, go ahead and cancel. No problem. We only keep your card in case you don’t show the night of.» So I placed the reservation and figured we were golden.
Later in the week I called back and informed them we had to cancel, a relative who was sick took a turn for the worse and we weren’t going to be able to karaōke it up. They then proceeded to charge me a «cancellation fee» of 87 dollars! I explained what they had told me on the phone earlier in the week but they didn’t seem to care and charged me anyway.
I hope Japas 38 REALLY enjoyed that 87 bucks because it is the last dime they will EVER see from me. Seems they were being «penny wise and dollar stupid» as I used to go regularly and spend lots of money. Guess they don’t need my business. Or yours. Guess with the dozens and dozens of competitors they have in the neighborhood, they felt ok nickel and diming a regular.
Sing it with me now «Stayyyyy Awayyyyy, from Japassssssss… THIRTY EIGHT!!»

The most ratchet karaōke night in history was thanks to Japas 38. Celebrated my birthday here last weekend, we booked the biggest room which fit about 30 people. The basic party package is a great bang for your buck. At $ 35/​pp, the 2 hour package includes huge sushi roll platters, appetizer platters (fries, dumplings etc) and unlimited sake and beer. At that price, you can’t find a deal anywhere else like that in the city.
Once the beers and sake started rolling through and the BSB/​Britney Spears/​K-​Ci & JoJo started playing, that’s all we needed to get the night started and bring us right back to our high school days.

Awesome place in the city to enjoy karaōke, choose from a significant selection of drinks and appetizers in a private room with a group of folks you want to be around for a night.
If you are going solo, definitely to stop at the bar and also have a great time with other folks. Very friendly oriented environment. Well staffed and great services.

Average service, excellent selection of songs, pitchers of sake and beer…
Terrible sushi and sashimi: literally uneatable — hard rice, chewy old looking fish, seemingly unfresh vegetables. We had a great time singing and drinking sake bombs, but everyone left hungry.

Very limited list of songs, and it’s quite difficult to work their strange remote that has about a gazillion buttons. Also, the rooms have a very odd layout. Gagopa is definitely the better option if you’re in the area and in the mood for karaōke.

Time for Karaōke!
This Japas was close to the subway, had a good selection of latest top 50s music, had multiple private rooms and decent beer.
Like other karaōke places, the remote is in a different language (Japanese) but I can assure you that you easily find songs searching for artists in English (I don’t read Japanese either). The room is sound proof, unless your neighbors decide to leave the door open (which is bad karaōke etiquette).
Service is obtained by ringing a bell near a door. Unfortunately, this lead to inconsistent attendance. When service does come, they are prompt with the beverages and utensils.
The songs are good, the sound is adjustable, and we all had a great time! No drink specials so if you need liquid courage, drink up before you get here. Definitely will keep this place in mind.

My good friend through a party here the other day, it seemed like a good deal when he told us — $ 65 for each of us, including food and unlimited alcohol with a private karaōke room. There were about 14 of us, and the overall experience was pretty bad.
THE ROOM — was much too small for us, the AC wasn’t working very well so it was super hot and there was no good ventilation, the Karaōke computer was difficult to operate and there was no control over the stupid delay effect in the mics which was set way too high
THE FOOD — was basically the cheapest sushi you can imagine, no actual fish were used, just imitation crab, vegetables and egg. Another plate featured the cheapest fried appetizers on the menu, spring roles, dumplings, chicken fingers and french fries. Nothing of substance and definitely not worth the high price tag
THE DRINKS — were limited to 2 choices, Japanese beer (in bottles) and really really cheap watered down Sake (that actually came in water pitchers).
Honestly the only reason I gave it 2 stars instead of one is because the service was pretty attentive and the staff was nice and accommodating. This is mainly a management problem

I can’t believe I worked across the street from here and came in on my last day. Well I wanted to do another visit and I’m really happy I did.
Before I did walk in I noticed the «Ladies Night» chalked on the sandwich board outside. Ladies Night? Why not?
My sis and I walked in to a more occupied Japas than my first visit. I like this Japas better than my go to on 27^th street because of the bar situation. The sound system is really nice and the way the tables and everything are set up it is just warmer than Japas 27.
Ok, back to the Ladies Night thing. So I thought it would be like 2 drinks for like a dollar off. Oh. No.
All drinks were half off if you had a uterus!!! OMG! So just an FYI. Wednesday night is Ladies Night!!! ALL DRINKS ARE HALF OFF. I like that I did all this like I’m a huge drinker. I’m not.
The bartenders were really nice and friendly and I made friends with some regulars who were giving me songs to sing. I had a great time and it was a nice surprise considering I was just going to drop in for a song or two.
I do wish they would have a better selection of songs from the best of the best for karaōke, like Talking Heads (3 songs) instead of the 20 songs from T.A.T.U. (yeah, don’t remember them, do you?) I guess it forces you to get out of your comfort zone and pick things you wouldn’t normally because they don’t have it.
The songs at the bar are $ 2 each and they don’t do deals like Japas 27, but whatever. Just go Wednesday… it’s Ladies Night!!!

You walk in when it’s so gloomy outside…
seat at the bar
order a cup of green tea
sip the tea and sing a song
no matter it’s for love or nostalgia
whatever…
you feel great
you walk out because you gotta things to do.
That’s it. It’s simple and easy. It’s just New York.

Every time I go to Japas 38, I get trashed, eat a lot and realize the next day that I spent less than $ 35.00. THAT, my friend, is UNHEARD of in NYC. If you’re looking to karaōke, eat, drink and be merry I would DEFINITELY recommend Japas 38. For around $ 35.00 you get two full-​sized platters of dumplings, sushi, spring rolls and etc for the group along with unlimited sake and beer. The food is surprisingly pretty good. The sake is suspect but who cares when you’re dropping it in a cup full of beer anyways, am I right?
Also, what’s great is that any time you’re low on alcohol or have a question about how to start the actual karaōke machine, you can ring the service button and someone magically appears carrying a pitcher of sake. Ayyooo!

A quasi-​strong drink for a not awful price of $ 9.80, and $ 2 per song for karaōke at the bar. Didn’t get a chance to try the private rooms; one friend thought another friend had made a reservation, and then three other of my friends thought the same thing about another person.
IMPRESSIVE song list, regardless! Like… DAMN. But only five Amy Winehouse songs? That makes me a saaaad panda.